‘There is complete agreement among all the Arab parties that we want to prevent these criminals from returning to power,’ says Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh’The issue is not changing the person in charge. We want to change Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s policies,’ he says<\/p>\n
Arab voters could determine Israel\u2019s next prime minister, said Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of the left-wing National Democratic Assembly (Balad) party, stressing that the goal of Arab parties is to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Arab vote in this election, according to all opinion polls over the past two years, will determine who will be prime minister in Israel,\u201d Abu Shehadeh told Anadolu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are therefore very concerned in this racist society about efforts to disqualify the Arab vote and remove us from the political arena altogether. The closer we get to Election Day, the greater our concern becomes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Palestinians in the territories occupied in 1948 make up more than 20% of Israel\u2019s population of 10 million.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls indicate that Arab lawmakers will win 12 to 14 of the Knesset\u2019s 120 seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are around 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel eligible to vote. A Knesset seat requires roughly 40,000 votes. We expect turnout to be between 62% and 73%,\u201d Abu Shehadeh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe therefore expect Palestinian Arabs to win around 14 to 16 seats in the Knesset. If we reach these numbers, Netanyahu and his criminal gang will not be able to form a coalition in the next phase,\u201d he added.\u2028\u2028Preventing Netanyahu\u2019s return<\/p>\n
Abu Shehadeh said bringing down Netanyahu\u2019s government and preventing him from forming a new one is the strategic objective of Arab parties in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is complete agreement among all the Arab parties that we want to prevent these criminals from returning to power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese criminals are the most difficult governing coalition we have dealt with since the Nakba (1948),” he said.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls indicate that neither Netanyahu\u2019s bloc nor the Jewish opposition bloc will be able to secure enough seats to form a government.<\/p>\n
A government requires the support of at least 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset.<\/p>\n
According to the polls, the Jewish opposition would need the support of Arab parties to form a government.<\/p>\n
However, most leaders of Jewish opposition parties reject relying on Arab parties for support in forming a government.<\/p>\n
Asked if Arab lawmakers would be open to forming a government with these Jewish opposition parties, he said: \u201cI wish there was a real opposition (in Israel).”<\/p>\n
“I wish someone was pushing a different political agenda from racist Netanyahu. A candidate who was ready to end the occupation,” he said, adding so far a genuine candidate has not come forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is not changing the person in charge. We want to change Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s policies.\u201d\u2028\u2028\u2028 <\/p>\n
Raising turnout<\/p>\n
Abu Shehadeh said the Joint List, an alliance of the Balad, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and the Arab Movement for Renewal, will work to increase Arab turnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a very difficult election campaign and are working at every level to raise turnout. We expect it to be very high compared with the past 30 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to estimates, a sizeable Arab turnout could threaten the chances of small right-wing parties of winning seats, which would reduce Netanyahu\u2019s chances of forming a government.\u2028\u2028\u2028 <\/p>\n
Disqualification attempts<\/p>\n
Abu Shehadeh also discussed recent attempts to prevent Arab parties from participating in the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a serious attempt by Netanyahu and his gang to remove all the Arab parties from the political arena, and we stopped that in the Supreme Court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNevertheless, I was personally disqualified as head of Balad, but we are continuing. We will not stop. We will continue our just struggle for freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian and Israeli people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are trying to disqualify us and silence our votes, and we will work to silence the voices of racism and racists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 23, the Israeli Central Elections Committee decided to disqualify the Joint List, led by Yousef Jabareen , as well as the United Arab List led by Knesset member Mansour Abbas.<\/p>\n
The decision also included Abu Shehadeh and Knesset member Ofer Cassif of the Joint List, before Israel\u2019s Supreme Court overturned the committee\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
However, the court signaled that it could uphold Abu Shehadeh\u2019s disqualification, prompting him, following consultations, to withdraw his candidacy before a judicial ruling was issued against him.<\/p>\n
So-called only democracy in Middle East<\/p>\n
Observers say preventing Arabs from participating in the election would have dealt a blow to Israel\u2019s claims of being \u201cthe only democracy in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite withdrawing his candidacy, Abu Shehadeh continues to campaign for the Joint List with the aim of preventing Netanyahu from forming a government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continuing, as we told our people directly after the Supreme Court decided to disqualify us and remove us from this contest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not derive our legitimacy from the criminal Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s national security minister, from the Israeli court or from any other Zionist party. As leaders of our people, our legitimacy comes solely from the sons and daughters of our people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will do everything I can to ensure the Joint List succeeds,\u201d Abu Shehadeh said.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu has headed the current government since late December 2022, in a government described as the most right-wing in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The election on Oct. 27 is considered critical to Netanyahu\u2019s political future as he faces corruption charges, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust.<\/p>\n
Alongside the domestic corruption proceedings, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu since 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘There is complete agreement among all the Arab parties that we want to prevent these criminals from returning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-639997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}